DR. SYED SARWAR HUSSAIN

I teach English at the College of Languages and Translation, King Saud University. Born on September 13, 1955, in India, I have been teaching English for the past thirty-five years, sixteen of them in India, and the rest in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I taught English in Magadh University, Bihar, India between 1981 and 1987, was a faculty member in the Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India, from 1988 to 1996, and joined the College of Languages and Translation at King Saud University, Riyadh, the same year, where I still continue to teach.I have been married over 30 years and have three grown children. An ardent writer and translator, I have several research papers to my credit, in various on-line and international print journals. I have also published four books that include 'Ideology and the Poetry of Stephen Spender' (1988), 'Despairing Voices' (2011), 'Ashes in the Fire' (2012), and 'The Eastern Brew' (2013). My two books, 'Nameless Lanes', and 'Scattered Leaves' are waiting for publication. My anthology of my own short stories, ‘The Blue-Bleak Embers’, and a collection of my poetry, ‘The Meandering Muse’ are next in the pipeline.

 ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
1. Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature (PhD);    SEPTEMBER, 1987
PATNA UNIVERSITY, PATNA, INDIA. The title of the thesis is IDEOLOGY and THE POETRY OF STEPHEN SPENDER”
2. Master of Arts (M.A.) in English; OCTOBER 27, 1980, awarded by PATNA UNIVERSITY, PATNA, INDIA  with Ancient Greek Plays as a special paper.
3. Bachelor of Arts English Language and Literature (B.A.) with Honours; AUGUST 10, 1978'  PATNA COLLEGE, PATNA UNIVERSITY, PATNA, INDIA.
 
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
 
1. Assistant Professor, College of Languages and Translation (Languages Unit), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; JANUARY 04, 1996 till date.                                                                                                               
At present, I am working as an Assistant Professor in the College of Languages and Translation at King Saud University. I am teaching language skills to both undergraduate and postgraduate students belonging to different disciplines.
The nature of my job requires expertise in development and modernization of course contents and teaching methodologies. I have, therefore, formulated course materials and teaching approaches to provide practical solutions and optional activities to mixed-ability classes so that classroom teaching becomes interesting and functional.
I hold considerable experience in design, development and teaching of advanced level reading and writing courses.
2. Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India;
    NOVEMBER 25, 1988 to JANUARY 04, 1996.                                                                     
      During my tenure as a Lecturer in Senior Scale in the Department of English at the Jamia Millia Islamia, I was involved in teaching English literature to the undergraduate and postgraduate students. I was assigned to teach English poetry of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (the Romantics and the poets of the early twentieth century to the 1930s) and the novels of Hardy, Dickens and Emily Bronte.
I also played an active part in student supervision and research, course preparation activities, and the testing and evaluation of students.
 
3. Oriental College, (Magadh University), Patna, India;                         
    JANUARY 15, 1981 to NOVENMBER 23, 1988.
 
As a Lecturer in the Department of English at the Oriental College, I gave over my tenure to the teaching of English literature and language at the undergraduate level. I taught a mixed bag of English poetry, short stories and essays to students who offered English literature as their special paper.
 I contributed significantly to the course preparation work and to the evaluation and testing of students during my tenure at the college.
PRESENT ACADEMIC POSITIONS:
 
1.    Coordinator, General English Courses and English Courses for the Graduate Studies Program, Language Unit, College of Languages and Translation, King Saud University, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia); since 2007
 
2.    Coordinator, Examination Committee, Language Unit, College of Languages and Translation, King Saud University, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia).
 
3.    Member, Course Planning and Curricula Committee for General English Courses in the Language Unit, College of Languages and Translation, King Saud University, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia).
 
4. Member, Course Equivalence Committee, College of Languages and Translation, King Saud University, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia).
 
5.    Member, Languages Unit Programme for Continuing Correspondence between the Quality Assurance Unit and the Programmes for General English Courses and English Courses for the Graduate Studies.
 
6. External Examiner for the evaluation of Ph.D. theses in Linguistics and Language Teaching from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India.
 
KEY AREAS OF ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE AND COMPETENCE
 
1. I hold extensive experience and proficiency in the teaching of English Language and Literature at all levels. During my stints at the Oriental College and Jamia Millia Islamia, I dedicated myself to teaching English Literature.
 
2. Throughout my teaching career, my effort has been to discover the symbiosis between language learning and human relationships – a study in psycholinguistic – which can go a long way in helping language teachers to delve into the minds of learners in order to make them have the feel of the target language.
 
3. I am keenly interested in the study of stylistic analysis of literary structures. Language cannot be studied without understanding the different ways and tones that go into making it, the way it is conveyed, and the shades of meaning it carries. Meaning, in fact, is the essence of language, and stylistic analysis helps us in discovering meaning through a proper understanding of the relations between the linguistic levels and the objects or concepts or ideas they refer.
 
4. I possess considerable experience in the design and development of teaching courses in the English Language, the preparation of tests at various levels, and performance assessment and evaluation with regard to these tests. I am also interested and involved in the development and modernization of course contents and teaching methods.
 
4.    I am also particularly involved in carrying out extensive research on the effectiveness of the use of literary texts in teaching language. My firm belief that literature has played and would further play a great role in language learning, is reinforced by my personal experiences as a language student during my school days, and much later when I myself became a language teacher.
COURSE DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES.
 

1. I have prepared dialogues and narratives to show how words work in real life situations, and to help students become acquainted with the common life experiences that make English mean what it means to native speakers.

     2. In addition to this, I have also tried to introduce language learning courses through the use of nursery rhymes to motivate learners at the elementary level to learn language through lexical knowledge, and through words and their expressions.
 
SUPERVISION OF THESIS                                                       
 
I successfully supervised a PhD thesis with the title, “Cinematic Influences in the novels of Christopher Isherwood”. The research scholar Adil Rasheed worked under me and the Degree of PhD was conferred on him by the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi in the year 1995.